Abstract

Information systems are organizations in which signs are created, processed
and consumed. In order to fulfil the organizational goals and objectives, its
members must understand their responsibilities and authorities, and must act
co-operatively. The key to this organization and co-ordination lies in norms,
which define responsibilities and authorities for each human agent, and establish
regularities of behaviour. In the context of co-operative work, where 'intelligent'
software agents are involved, to understand the norms of behaviour of various
human agents becomes critical. Software agents can perform some tasks autonomously
on the user's behalf. Such delegation involves a set of complicated philosophical
and legal issues. After discussion on delineation of various boundaries of responsibility
and authorities, this paper addresses normas and normative behaviour of human
agents within an organization. It discusses the taxonomies of norms and a method
of norm specification, with examples. Finally it presents an approach of norm-based
agency for designing collaborative information systems and a case study of an
insurance claim for illustration.